This invention relates to an improved type of folding saw and more particularly a folding bucksaw whose handles when folded encase the blade and other parts. It is compact and lightweight enough to be conveniently carried in a hiker's backpack or wherever else portability is a factor such as in a survival kit.
There are folding saws in the prior art, some of which have three main members, the handle being the short side of the triangle and the blade being one of the long sides. These triangular folding saws restrict the diameter of firewood that can be sawed because the back, or third member of the frame, severely limits the useful stroke unless a saw blade is used that is too long to be conveniently portable. Therefore triangular framed folding saws are not suited to the objectives. Trapezoidal or rectangular frame folding saws are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,595,288 and 2,930,420. One problem with folding portable saws shown in these patents is that tension in the saw blade develops high bending moments in the folding joints connecting the back of the saw frame with the side members. The problem in such prior art is to obtain economically a strong joint while retaining the desired objective of light weight. This invention has no folding joints that are subjected to bending moment; the only bending moment being in the central portion of the handles which have the ability to resist bending. This results in a saw less than half the weight of folding saws in the prior art.